Railfan Technology > photoshop questions

I'm finally biting the bullet and buying photoshop and I'm wondering what version you guys would recommend. I don't want to be stuck with a monthly subscription.

I believe Photoshop CS6 is the last version you can get without a subscription. I use CS5

Elements 12 is still old school, keep your files, no cloud needed but is optional. You get a disk but most of the program comes over the www, as with most s/w.

The 'nice' idea was to be able to use full up PS over a tablet or room size display or similar while working with your client in the field. I think that's stretching it a bit.

I bought PSE 12 at Costco since they have a return policy, if you don't like it you can take it back regardless of it's 'electronics' status.

There are folks using older versions on off-the-net XP machines and such. Makes it a more interesting hobby that way.

Adobe Lightroom will do lots of the stuff Photoshop will do even with raw files without requiring a subscription or cloud access connection.

Adobe allows you to download a 30 day trial version of the software you might want to try for free. You pay for it at the end of the trial if you want to keep it.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

I second what fbe mentioned. Utilize the 30 day trials of each software that isn't cloud based and see which you would prefer the most. I did that and ended up buying Lightroom on my student discount via Amazon.

As near as I can tell, you can't purchase PS CS6, at least thru Adobe directly. Personally, I'd
consider one of two things, either follow others advice and go with Lighroom ($135.85 @ B&H), or,
go with the photographers bundle offered via the dreaded subscription service, both LR 5 and PS CC
@ $9.99 per month. Or actually a third option is Photoshop Elements, which honestly, is
most likely more than would ever be needed by most of us. B&H has PS Elements 12 @ $84.99
Me, I've been using PS CC and LR 5 thru the subscription method, and couldn't recumbent it enough.
That's just me, and there's plenty of folks out there who swear to never go this route, and that's
fine to.

JWR

Do you have any particular challenge that you are trying to overcome, if so what is it?

Coming from my knowledge as a professional graphic designer, Photoshop (PS6) is only compatible for the computers, built in the last two years (generally speaking). I myself use PS5 and have no intension to upgrade my operating system just to make myself compatible with Adobe's new knickknacks.

Matthew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/14 00:49 by sandpatch25.

I generally need to do color correcting and minor editing. Once I start scanning my slides I'll have some that got split during processing that I'll need to fix. Elements looks like it should work fine. Thank You all for your input.

I'm a Lightroom convert, too.

Historically, I've had versions of Photoshop dating to v3. I now use Lightroom 3 almost exclusively. I've also used it on a handful of 1950's slides I've scanned with success.

* JB *

sandpatch25 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do you have any particular challenge that you are
> trying to overcome, if so what is it?
>
> Coming from my knowledge as a professional graphic
> designer, Photoshop (PS6) is only compatible for
> the computers, built in the last two years
> (generally speaking). I myself use PS5 and have no
> intension to upgrade my operating system just to
> make myself compatible with Adobe's new
> knickknacks.
>
> Matthew

PS6 runs just fine on my 5 1/2 year old home built machine. I do not like the subscription mode that Adobe now forces one to use for newer versions. PS6 does everything I need it to do, and then some.

I did find PS Elements too basic and quickly deleted the try-out version I had.

Ted

I have used Photoshop since CS3 and Lightroom since v1. Because I am a photographer, and Adobe is not adding any new features to on-subscription Photoshop CS6, I finally purchased the subscription where I get the latest versions of both applications for $9.99 a month. The cost of Photoshop CS6 when it was available to a new user was around $600. Then there were upgrade costs. I can afford $9.99 a month for Photoshop and Lightroom.

Photoshop has a hefty learning curve. If you don't have the inclination to do what it takes to learn Photoshop, Lightroom is the answer. You can do the majority of your photo work in Lightroom. There are certain tasks that are easier in Photoshop, but can be accomplished in Lightroom.. There are some advanced features that you need Photoshop for, such as using layers, 3D, actions, alpha channels, etc..

Lightroom is a great application designed by photographers for photographers. The user interface is straightforward and there are lots of learning sites out there. Check out www.lightroomkillertips.com.

Good luck,

Jim

For what it's worth, I do professional photography as a side job (weddings, portraits, etc.) and I've used a freeware program called GIMP in the past to do some basic RAW file processing. It's 100% free, and does almost all of the photo-grade stuff that Photoshop does (and I'm making comparisons to Photoshop CS5 extended that I use daily).